Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of Zimbabwe's violence-wracked presidential runoff Sunday, declaring that the election was no longer credible and the loss of life among his supporters was simply too high.


The announcement cleared the way for President Robert Mugabe to continue his 28-year rule, despite mounting condemnation from even loyal African allies that the former independence hero has become a despot who has bankrupted the country's once thriving economy.

"We can't ask the people to cast their vote on June 27 when that vote will cost their lives. We will no longer participate in this violent sham of an election," Tsvangirai said.

He addressed a news conference in Zimbabwe's capital after thousands of militants loyal to Mugabe prevented opposition supporters from gathering for its main campaign rally.

As night fell, militia groups roamed the capital and hotels sent their workers home early out of fear for the safety. Normally busy Sunday traders packed up early.

Tsvangirai called on the United Nations, the European Union and the Southern African regional bloc to intervene.

He said he would put forward new proposals by Wednesday on how take the country forward. The opposition has repeatedly said it would welcome a government of "national healing" including ruling ZANU-PF party members but not Mugabe himself.

Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said Friday's runoff would go ahead in accordance with the constitution — and to prove Zimbabweans' support for Mugabe, who has held power since independence from Britain in 1980.

"The constitution does not say that if somebody drops out or decides to chicken out the runoff will not be held," Ndlovu said.

"It is an election of the people of Zimbabwe against Britain and America," he said, returning to the government's theme of portraying Tsvangirai as a puppet of Western powers out to re-colonize Zimbabwe. The opposition, Britain and the United States reject such claims.

Tsvangirai won the first round of the presidential election on March 29, but did not gain an outright majority against 84-year-old Mugabe. That campaign was generally peaceful, but the runoff has been overshadowed by violence and intimidation, especially in rural areas. Independent human rights groups say 85 people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes, most of them opposition supporters.

Ndlovu reiterated government claims that the opposition was to blame for the violence.

Tsvangirai complained that he was being treated like a "common criminal," with his attempts to tour the country stymied by police at roadblocks.

The state-controlled media have banned opposition advertisements, claiming they "contain inappropriate language and information." The media cited one ad that claimed that Tsvangirai won the election, "which is not the case, hence the runoff."

Tendai Biti, the opposition party's No. 2, was arrested within minutes of his return from South Africa last week and is being held on treason charges.

Tsvangirai had hoped to address his main campaign rally for the runoff Sunday afternoon.

But thousands of ruling party militants blockaded the show ground site and set up road blocs at the main approach streets, ripped branches from trees and hurled stones at cars. Hundreds of militants, many with sticks and wearing ZANU-PF ruling party colors, marched past its headquarters chanting slogans. ZANU-PF trucks, warning lights flashing and crammed with passengers, circled the grounds.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed that the militants were beating opposition supporters who were trying to reach the venue and said at least two were seriously injured. It said the militants attacked journalists and forced African election monitors, who had been driving around the rally site, to flee. Election monitors could not immediately be reached for comment.

Zimbabwe has barred Western observers and most journalists, but permitted African election monitors.

Mugabe has shrugged off mounting international condemnation. But never before has he faced such criticism from other African leaders who now openly say Mugabe is an embarrassment.

Even one of Mugabe's staunchest allies, Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, urged him to end "all acts of intimidation and violence," while current African Union chair Tanzania said it doubted the elections would be free and fair. The leaders of Rwanda and Kenya — which have both suffered deadly political violence — have been especially scathing.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said Sunday that the runoff must be postponed. Mwanawasa, who currently holds the rotating chair of the Southern African Development Community and has long been among Mugabe's most outspoken critics in the region, said Zimbabwe had failed to meet minimum election standards.

He voiced particular frustration that he had been unable to reach South African President Thabo Mbeki, the region's designated mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, and criticized Mbeki for not sharing information.

Mbeki is increasingly isolated both abroad at at home for his appeasement of Mugabe and his refusal to flex South Africa's economic muscle against his neighbor.

Mbeki's spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga said Tsvangirai had called Mbeki earlier Sunday to inform him he was withdrawing.

"Of course we would like to encourage the MDC to continue to play a role in the normalization of the political process in Zimbabwe. And we are encouraged that Mr. Tsvangirai says he is not closing the door completely on negotiations," said Ratshitanga.

The European Union on Friday threatened to step up sanctions against Mugabe's government, and the United States and Britain want a special You.N. Security Council meeting.

At a rally in the western city of Bulawayo on Friday, Mugabe said the opposition was lying about the violence and that everywhere he visited was peaceful. His powerful police chief pinned the blame firmly on the opposition and said that police would clamp down.

Mugabe was lauded early in his rule for campaigning for racial reconciliation. But in recent years, he has been accused of ruining the economy and holding onto power through fraud and intimidation.

People are going hungry in what was once the region's breadbasket, with the world's highest inflation rate putting staples out of reach.

The economic slide has been blamed on the collapse of the key agriculture sector after often-violent seizures of farmland from whites. Mugabe claimed he ordered the seizures, begun in 2002, to benefit poor blacks. But many of the farms instead went to his loyalists.

From Here

Sad day for all of Africa!

wish both of them could come together and form a government of national unity, the people have suffered too much

bilymuse:

wish both of them could come together and form a government of national unity, the people have suffered too much

uumm, WHY? Should we redefine democracy in Africa so that all those who find it hard upholding the law be given a place, no matter how illegal, in the system to continue ruling?? Is Kenya's example what we should all aspire to? Should the brutes be allowed to continue, regardless of what the people have really voted for? Do you still have a democracy when you ignore the will of the people only to pander to the selfish will of the few?? Should we continue to reward people who continue to break the law??

Morgan should not have taken this position. He should have continued, if only to put more pressure on Mugabe. He has only allowed Mugabe free reign now.

It's a sad development

No doubt. . .Africa is the most pathetic Continent on earth!!!

Zimbabwe's main MDC opposition party says police have raided its Harare HQ, just a day after its presidential candidate announced he was withdrawing from Friday's runoff election due to intimidation by President Mugabe's supporters.

When asked about the reason for the raid, a Mugabe spokesman told CNN it was part of "the ongoing crackdown on lawless elements that have been bringing so much violence" in Zimbabwe.

"The government will act on anyone, anywhere who is thought to be contravening the laws of the country," said George Charamba.

Monday's raid comes a day after Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said state-sponsored violence against his supporters had made it impossible for him to run.

"A free and fair election is impossible," Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters Sunday. "We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate , sham of an election process."

Mugabe and his government have denied the accusations, blaming the MDC for inciting violence in the weeks ahead of the run-off vote.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said some of those arrested include injured women and children who were victims of political violence and had sought refuge at the party's headquarters.

He said riot police raided the offices around 12 p.m. local time and gave no reasons.

MDC party treasurer Roy Bennett, who lives in exile in South Africa, called the raid "ongoing harassment against the opposition."

"As if it's not enough that we have actually pulled out of the elections, which was one of the most difficult decisions the party has made," Bennett told CNN.

"We have 86 murdered, hundreds of thousands displaced, hundreds of homes burned and destroyed for the sake of (Mugabe) remaining in power," he added.

Charamba disputed the MDC figures as unsubstantiated and criticized CNN for reporting them, saying anyone -- including Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party -- could make such claims.

Meanwhile world leaders have challenged Mugabe's legitimacy and threatened United Nations action.

In a statement issued Sunday evening in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office called for an immediate end to "the campaign of violence and intimidation that has marred this election."

No wonder why y'all are been treated like common goats when u go to the western Countries. .
A very big shame to Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe that the WEST contributed to the problems of the opposition leader by their double standards and hypocrisy in its handling of world issues.

Zimbabwe was once a beautiful place even for the WEST and the whites who originally seized lands belonging to black Africans. During that time nobody complained about Mugabe and in fact until Blair came to power Britain never had issues with Mugabe. So, what went wrong?

We need to know what went wrong and possibly seeks ways to understand it and of course make sure it does not happen any where else in Africa.

The moment seized lands where returned to their rightful owners all hell let loose and the WEST decided that Mugabe would leave at all cost.

The opposition leader in my opinion will be a puppet of the WEST after all the WEST supports him and the WEST never gets into businesses without profits even if such profits are smeared with blood of innocent people. Check out Iraq to confirm this.

Only God will stop Mugabe abi?

we shall see

Mustay:

Only God will stop Mugabe abi?

we shall see

anyone can stop Mugabe.

How do you get a cow out china-shop? The answer is what you need.

Same strategy was used for OBJ by Atiku/Buhari.

Afam,
this same west that is causing problem in zimbabwe are the same west that told obj to go for third term.
no matter what we believe or think, mugabe has overstayed his welcome.
no matter how good a leader is, the people must along the line get bored with him.
one of the most common and generally accepted law of nature is the consistency of change.
the people are dying and it is very simple for the man to quit and save some lives rather than blaming the south or west.
all of us know here that it is inborn in us africans to die on seat and the 99% intentions are always there for every african leader to find a way to extend if not die as a leader.
the beautiful zimbabwe you are talking about was in the days of white farmers who made food surplus contrary to the idea of leaving the lands in the hands of people who have little or no experience of what to do with the lands.
in your defence try and get in touch with a zimbabwian and for sure u will know the real situation of things there.
how do u involve the west in the actions of our past wicked leaders here in nigeria and africa talking about the likes of charles taylor, ibb, abacha, obj, iyadima etc.

Afam:

I believe that the WEST contributed to the problems of the opposition leader by their double standards and hypocrisy in its handling of world issues.

The rantings of a man who hasn't got a clue what he is talking about.So Tsvangirai's problems are partly a result of the West's handling of world issues? How so? Clearly,Afam is too befuddled to elaborate on this obtuse remark.

Zimbabwe was once a beautiful place even for the WEST and the whites who originally seized lands belonging to black Africans. During that time nobody complained about Mugabe and in fact until Blair came to power Britain never had issues with Mugabe. So, what went wrong?

You would think this clueless man will tell us what went wrong in order to justify his opening premise.When was Zimbabwe actually a beautiful place?Is it when Mugabe massacred the Ndebele people in the 80s,his troops excelling in cutting open the stomachs of pregnant women.

Only an astonishingly clueless person will claim that the Thatcher and Major administrations-Blair's predecessors-didn't have any problems with Mugabe.

The opposition leader in my opinion will be a puppet of the WEST after all the WEST supports him and the WEST never gets into businesses without profits even if such profits are smeared with blood of innocent people. Check out Iraq to confirm this.

I think you should broaden your knowledge of history and spare us your incredibly nescient commentary .What about the Govts of post-war Germany,Taiwan,South Korea and Japan all of which were in thrall to the West ?

An obsession with analysing every issue through an anti-Western prism renders most of your viewpoints inane.

I'm still contemplating on if this was a strategic move by Tsvangiri. He has been through quite a lot to be giving up now.

mmmmmm!! I wonder.

Afam:

I believe that the WEST contributed to the problems of the opposition leader by their double standards and hypocrisy in its handling of world issues.

Lets even assume the WEST is the problem, are Zimbabweans lifeless zombies controlled by this mythical WEST?

Afam:

The moment seized lands where returned to their rightful owners all hell let loose and the WEST decided that Mugabe would leave at all cost.

To sieze productive farmlands and give to jobless layabouts was about the worst government policy Mugabe ever implemented. As usual though, lets just blame the WEST.

Afam:

The opposition leader in my opinion will be a puppet of the WEST after all the WEST supports him and the WEST never gets into businesses without profits even if such profits are smeared with blood of innocent people. Check out Iraq to confirm this.

Its all about the WEST . . . nothing to do with that despot called Mugabe.

The African peace keepers are as bad as the tyrants they are supposed to be protecting them from.

@ 4 Play
what is the need for the insults?

@davidylan
good response

My personal position is that Mugabe is a stupid man who has overstayed his time. I also however believe that Britain is very complicit in this. It's true Britain had no problem with Mugabe during Thatcher's era and the problems started when an agreement was breached by Blair's Government

dudu-bobo:

My personal position is that Mugabe is a stupid man who has overstayed his time. I also however believe that Britain is very complicit in this. It's true Britain had no problem with Mugabe during Thatcher's era and the problems started when an agreement was breached by Blair's Government

Have you ever thought that a white country could not possibly be seen having a problem with a black country that just gained independence, is being led by a supposedly independence hero and its neighbour it suffering from white led apatheid?

Would people like you not scream blue murder and racism then, no matter the crime of the hero zero?

Do you understand the subtlility of international diplomacy, especially between black countries and white countries that were colonial masters/slave users?

@4Play/ Iman,

As usual trying to hide your stupidity with insults and grammar, I guess you are a cursed being.

Mugabe this, Mugabe that, Mugabe, Mugabe, Mugabe everytime, wetin sef
Candid suggestion. Let them kuku leave the guy to die for the place
How many years does he have left anyway

And they tried to use UN to achieve what their 'cry baby' could not do:

The US., Britain, France and other Western powers tried but failed to include language asserting that Tsvangirai should be considered the legitimate president, until another fair election can be held.

so much for WEST desperation.

Mugabe can run the election against himself!

Cheating, greedy and thieving Humpty Dumpty

There will always be the temptation to blame the west and white-black segregation for the problems of Zimbabwe.

But lets face it whatever Robert Mugabe does that have left his country in over 2million% inflation is simply not working and needs to change.

Mugabe's propaganda of liberation and their forefathers siezed our lands is simply outdated. Zimbabwe should stop refighting the fights of their forefathers and move on. 28 years of Mugabe is enough and needs to change.

Zimbabwe was succeeding in tourism and export of agricultural produce. The customers to these two industries are white europeans, if the Government of the same country begins to pursue racist policies against whites why should the Europeans continue financing such a Government.

The truth is while we remind white people of their racist past you have to do it in a way that calls for equality and reconcillation, not revenge. Robert Mugabe was seeking revenge and was bound to fail.

What would have been a better strategy would have been to allow the elite farmers own the land they have but tax them in order to sponsor welfare programmes that will uplift the middle class. Knowing that there will naturally be more black people in the middle class  because they are relatively more in population.

There is no point openly maltreating white Zimbabweans because of what their grandfathers did, no Government will succeed like that. At least not when IMF and such organisations, or the major customers of Zimbabwe's export produce are whites. It wont happen.

Robert Mugabe should go.

Sagamite:

Have you ever thought that a white country could not possibly be seen having a problem with a black country that just gained independence, is being led by a supposedly independence hero and its neighbour it suffering from white led apatheid?

Would people like you not scream blue murder and racism then, no matter the crime of the hero zero?

Do you understand the subtlility of international diplomacy, especially between black countries and white countries that were colonial masters/slave users?

They should hold their peace for ever if they did not feel the need to speak up before then.

Perhaps you need to look into the breached agreement on the part of Britain as well.

dudu-bobo:

They should hold their peace for ever if they did not feel the need to speak up before then.

Perhaps you need to look into the breached agreement on the part of Britain as well.

Breached agreement or no breach agreement does not mean a President should carry out actions that would destroy the economy of his country.

So because Margaret Thatcher kept quiet, to you means that Tony Blair should keep quiet?

We can as well say Yaradua should go with what Abacha did.

When you are in government, you have to be very intelligent to be able to assess your local and global environment to understand the present state of issues, the drivers of the issues, how this drivers are changing, what are the drivers impact and how your response would impact the current state and the drivers.

So sorry I don't agree with your simplistic and static "They should hold their peace for ever if they did not feel the need to speak up before then".

Mugabe is what we call a daftie!

UK is what we call a bully

hi this is a really urgly situation happening in zimbabwe

Except morgan tsvangirai is a man of no conviction or of pretensious hidden western intreasts, I dont understand y they cant fight it to the last. He has most of the people to his side _{or so he claims} except there is sometin else i dont know.

brilliant. well written.

is this the end of 'cry baby Tsvangirai??

It has been done with great brutality, but Robert Mugabe has achieved an extraordinary turnaround here.

Back in March, when the first round of voting took place, he was humiliated by being beaten into second place in the presidential race, and by losing the parliamentary election outright.

Now he's the sole effective candidate in Friday's presidential run-off, and he cannot fail to win with an overwhelming majority.

  The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe's ferocious determination to stay in power


His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been completely outmanoeuvred. The outside world, which mostly sympathises with him, can do nothing whatever to help him.

The suburban street outside the Dutch embassy where he's taken refuge in Harare is empty, except for a few security policemen on the look-out.

Even his choice of embassy has been turned against him by his political enemies. It might well have been better for him politically if he had chosen an African rather than a European country to ask for help.

As it is, MDC supporters are gloomy and resentful. They are also cowed.

The streets of Harare are quiet because there is no longer any need for the groups of violent political activists in Zanu-PF T-shirts who have been roaming them, looking for people to beat up.


There will be no demonstrations in favour of the man inside the Dutch embassy. He seems as cowed as his supporters.

There are plenty of people here who do not even know yet that Morgan Tsvangirai has dropped out of the political race.


Morgan Tsvangirai's presidential campaign has been ignored or belittled

That is not entirely surprising. The official media scarcely mentions Mr Tsvangirai or the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) unless they are obliged to.

The main English-language television news programme at 8pm each evening on the ZBC is an hour-long paean of praise to Mr Mugabe and his past record.

The programme's reporting merges imperceptibly with the frequent election advertisements for Mr Mugabe. If anything, the reporters and newscasters praise him more than his own party hacks.

As for Mr Tsvangirai, he only gets a substantial mention on television when he is being attacked. One rather well-made advertisement lists him with Tony Blair, George W Bush and Gordon Brown as members of the "failures club".

A long news report on Mr Mugabe's political campaigning contrasts his successes and his likely future achievements with Mr Tsvangirai's inexperience. The reporter, referring to Mr Tsvangirai's past as a union leader, says dismissively that he has merely negotiated about getting more money.

Neither she nor anyone else in this hour-long programme mentions that on Monday the Zimbabwean dollar fell to 30 billion against the US dollar. The cost of a tub of margarine in a Harare store on Monday was Z$420m.

Chinese support

No-one knows how much worse the economic collapse will be after Mr Mugabe wins the vote on Friday. The economy seems to be in complete freefall now.

But as long as he can blame it on Western sanctions, even though they are few and mostly aimed at leading members of Zanu-PF, he will remain unscathed.

Western powers will be openly angry about the eclipse of Morgan Tsvangirai and the sweeping victory of Robert Mugabe on Friday. Many African governments will be just as angry, but will be more discreet about it.

Some countries, China in particular, will continue to help Mr Mugabe quietly and give him what diplomatic protection they can.

It all adds up to a remarkable sweeping victory for a man who only three months ago seemed to be on the ropes.

The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe's ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case

the country of Zimbabwe will continue to perish under the control of that tyrannt. May God keep them in his prayers because he is the only one who can deliver that country.

The same people blaming the West for every stupid actions of African despots are at the same time living, working and making a living in the West. Isn't that funny, why can't you move to Zimbabawe and live inside Mugabes paradise, where a loaf of bread cost five million dollars.

If the sanctions aganist Mugabes and his henchmen which are restricted to travel alone is the problem, why can't he trade with other nations? Cuba was under sanction for more than half of a century but look at Cuba. They have one of the best healthcare system in the world even better than the United State. The sanction, did it stop the land of Zimbabwe from producing food?

Mugabe are like some Nigerian musicians that build all their career in singing around aparthide regime in South Africa and then the regime ended and they got nothing else to sing about. Mugabe build all his credential for his people around the liberation struggles as if he did it himself alone. After many years in power without any achievement but a continued systematic decemation of the once/food basket beautiful country he inherited, he has no option than to whip out the liberation nonsense again by playing a divide and rule, using well mechanised white farmers as a tool.

Now he has given the land to clueless and mindless thugs called war veterans that looted the farms of even furnitures, what will they do with the land? Zimbabwe is not the only nation in that region that inherited the white settlers as citizens, just look at Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, they all have white citizens and they are all economically okay compared the Mugabes Zimbabwe. Why are they not having the same problem and why are the same Western disease not affecting them?

If Landis and Afam believed in Zimbabwe and their hero Mugabe, I suuggest, they should immediatly move to Zimbabwe as soon as possible and report to us in just one week how they are progressing. There is no point playing blind African patriot on your keyboard, with Western food on the table and probably a chilled beer by the side in a Western country. With people like you around, Africa will continue to be in darkness because the likes of you will one day accidentally find yourself in Mugabes position. God forbid!!!!

Eziachi:

The same people blaming the West for every stupid actions of African despots are at the same time living, working and making a living in the West. Isn't that funny, why can't you move to Zimbabawe and live inside Mugabes paradise, where a loaf of bread cost five million dollars.

If the sanctions aganist Mugabes and his henchmen which are restricted to travel alone is the problem, why can't he trade with other nations? Cuba was under sanction for more than half of a century but look at Cuba. They have one of the best healthcare system in the world even better than the United State. The sanction, did it stop the land of Zimbabwe from producing food?

Mugabe are like some Nigerian musicians that build all their career in singing around aparthide regime in South Africa and then the regime ended and they got nothing else to sing about. Mugabe build all his credential for his people around the liberation struggles as if he did it himself alone. After many years in power without any achievement but a continued systematic decemation of the once/food basket beautiful country he inherited, he has no option than to whip out the liberation nonsense again by playing a divide and rule, using well mechanised white farmers as a tool.

Now he has given the land to clueless and mindless thugs called war veterans that looted the farms of even furnitures, what will they do with the land? Zimbabwe is not the only nation in that region that inherited the white settlers as citizens, just look at Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, they all have white citizens and they are all economically okay compared the Mugabes Zimbabwe. Why are they not having the same problem and why are the same Western disease not affecting them?

If Landis and Afam believed in Zimbabwe and their hero Mugabe, I suuggest, they should immediatly move to Zimbabwe as soon as possible and report to us in just one week how they are progressing. There is no point playing blind African patriot on your keyboard, with Western food on the table and probably a chilled beer by the side in a Western country. With people like you around, Africa will continue to be in darkness because the likes of you will one day accidentally find yourself in Mugabes position. God forbid!!!!

On the point, mate.

I don't even know where this doofus-bobo got the idea that the Thatcher and Major administrations weren't criticizing Mugabe back in the 80s and 90s.

All the talk of "breached agreement" is a red herring and defies logic.People forget,its not Britain that Mugabe is punishing but the Zimbabwean people.

4 Play:

I don't even know where this doofus-bobo got the idea that the Thatcher and Major administrations weren't criticizing Mugabe back in the 80s and 90s.

All the talk of "breached agreement" is a red herring and defies logic.People forget,its not Britain that Mugabe is punishing but the Zimbabwean people.

get with the program! In Africa nothing is ever our fault, its all the fault of the WEST.